Changing Your Wi-Fi Password Kicks Every Device Off

You want to change the Wi-Fi password, or give the network a name that is not the one printed on the router. Both take about a minute in the router's own settings.

What nobody warns you about is the hour afterwards, when the doorbell, the printer, the thermostat and everyone else in the house all stop working at once.

I counted the saved wireless networks on this laptop before writing, because that number explains something people find confusing later.

Two passwords, and people change the wrong one

Sort this out first or nothing below will make sense.

⭐ The Wi-Fi password is what devices use to join the network. Also called the network key or the passphrase.

⚡ The admin password is what YOU use to log into the router itself. Different thing, different box, usually printed on a different line of the sticker.

⚠️ Documented by Netgear on its password page: "The default user name is admin. The password is the one that you specified the first time that you logged in."

⛔ Change the admin one too if it is still the factory default. Anyone who can reach your router can otherwise reconfigure it.

Getting into the router

Netgear's own route, and the pattern is the same on most makes.

⚡ Netgear says to launch a browser from a device on the network and: "Enter www.routerlogin.net."

⭐ Other makes use their own address or a number like 192.168.1.1. It is printed on the router, on the same sticker as the password.

⚠️ Then the wireless section. Netgear states: "Select Wireless. For Nighthawk Pro Gaming routers, select Settings > Wireless Setup."

⛔ If the page will not load at all, you are on the wrong network. Mobile data on a phone will not reach your router, and neither will a guest network on some models.

Making the change

Four fields, and the order matters less than the warning after it.

⭐ Netgear's wording is plain: "Enter your new network name in the Name (SSID) field. Enter your new password in the Password (Network Key) fields. Click or tap Apply. Your changes are saved."

⚡ And then the sentence that costs people an evening: "If your device disconnects from your WiFi network after saving your changes, view the available wireless networks again and reconnect using the new WiFi network key or password."

⚠️ Every device disconnects. Not just the one you are holding. Printers, speakers, cameras, plugs, the television, the robot vacuum.

⛔ Write the new password down before you press Apply, on paper, because the device you would normally look it up on is about to fall off the network too.

What this laptop shows about renaming

Measured here, and it is the part that confuses people afterwards.

⭐ This machine holds ten saved wireless profiles. Every network it has ever joined is still remembered.

⚡ Changing the network NAME does not update the old entry. It creates an eleventh, and the old one sits there forever, trying to join a network that no longer exists.

⚠️ That is why some devices reconnect instantly and others never do. The stubborn ones are chasing the old name.

⛔ Forget the old network on anything that misbehaves. The same forgetting step matters on a phone, and it deletes the saved password with it.

Check what security you are actually on

One line, and most people have never looked.

⭐ Read on this machine, in Terminal: the connection reports WPA2-Personal with the CCMP cipher.

⚡ Run yours the same way:

netsh wlan show interfaces

⚠️ WPA2 is fine. WPA3 is better, and WEP or an open network is not acceptable in 2026. If yours says WEP, that is the thing to change today, ahead of any password.

⛔ Some older devices cannot join WPA3 at all, which is why routers offer a mixed mode. Use it rather than dropping the whole network back to WPA2.

Do these in an order that saves the evening

Six steps, and the first two are the ones people skip.

⚡ Write the new password down first, and put it somewhere physical.

⭐ Do it when nobody needs the internet. Not at seven in the evening.

⚠️ Change the password before the name if you are doing both. Changing the name is what strands devices that cannot be reconfigured easily.

⛔ Then reconnect the things that have no screen last: printer, camera, thermostat, plugs. Each one needs its own trip.

⭐ Keep the network name boring and unidentifiable. Not your surname, not your flat number.

⚡ And if a device will not rejoin at all, reset only that device, not the router.

⚠️ If you run an extender, renaming the router is the moment to think about its name too. The two makers disagree about that, in writing.

When you should actually do this

Four reasons, and one non-reason.

⭐ Somebody has the password who should not. A former tenant, a contractor, a guest list you have lost track of.

⚡ The router is still on its factory password. Those are printed on the box and on the sticker, and some are guessable.

⚠️ You are moving house or replacing the router, in which case set the new one up with the old name and password and nothing needs reconnecting at all.

⛔ A slow connection is not a reason. Changing the password does not make anything faster. Slow has its own measurements.

Status: measured here on 28 August 2026 against Netgear's own documentation. ⛔ No network name, password, address or router make of this house is published, and nothing was changed.

Will changing my Wi-Fi password disconnect everything?

Yes, every device on the network. Netgear says plainly that if your device disconnects after you save the change, you view the available networks again and reconnect with the new key. That applies to printers, cameras, speakers and anything else with no screen, and each one needs its own trip.

What is the difference between the Wi-Fi password and the router password?

The Wi-Fi password is what devices use to join the network. The router or admin password is what you use to log into the router's settings page. Netgear's default user name is admin, with a password you set the first time you logged in. Changing one does not change the other.

Why will one device not reconnect after I renamed the network?

Because it is still trying to join the old name. Renaming does not update the saved entry, it adds a new one, and the old profile sits there indefinitely. This laptop is holding ten saved networks. Forget the old one on any device that will not rejoin.

How do I check what security my Wi-Fi is using?

Run netsh wlan show interfaces in Terminal and read the Authentication line. This machine reports WPA2-Personal with the CCMP cipher. WPA2 is acceptable and WPA3 is better. If yours reports WEP or shows no security at all, change that before you worry about the password itself.

The Short Version

• The Wi-Fi password and the router admin password are different things.
• Get in through the address on the router's sticker, from a device on the network.
• Netgear warns that devices disconnect after you apply the change.
• Write the new password on paper first. Your phone is about to drop off.
• Renaming the network does not update saved entries. It adds a new one.
• This laptop is holding ten saved networks, most of them dead.
• Read your security type with one command. WPA2 is fine, WEP is not.
• A password change never makes a connection faster.

Where to Next

Write the new password on paper before you touch anything. The device you would normally check it on is about to lose the network.

Then pick a time when nobody in the house needs the internet, because everything drops at the same moment.

Change the password first and the name second if you are doing both. Renaming is what strands the devices you cannot easily reconfigure.

Reconnect the screenless things last, one at a time, and expect each one to need its own fiddle.

If a device of yours has ever refused to rejoin after a rename, tell me which one in the comments. Printers and cameras are the usual suspects and it would be useful to have the list.